It seems this year one thing is going almost exactly like last year. (No, not the generally locked-down state of life :). ) I mean the weather in March. The beginning saw a fresh dump of snow, then sunshine, which by the latter part of the month pretty much put paid to aforementioned snow, and by the end, crocuses were appearing in our garden encouraged by the sun and relative warmth!
But let's rewind a bit. After a rather wet and gloomy end of February, the promised cold weather did arrive! But even though there was no fresh snow forthcoming, we ventured out on some old rather frozen tracks with mixed results. I do believe my general ability on cross-country skis has improved markedly since even a couple of years ago, as proved by the number of falls (very few :D).
The weather was starting to get nice in general though, helped no end by the lengthening days. A trip around Drammensfjord confirmed that the deepest winter was past. This was confirmed by the rapid rate at which the ice was breaking up and disappearing from the edge of the fjord. I was frankly shocked at the surface area that disappeared just in the half hour or so between the outward and return parts of our walk past a particularly sunny stretch.
Then came the pre-spring dump of snow! The most in a single day this whole season, it felt like! And we made the most of it with a few longish cross-country trips over the next ten days or so! The snow wasn't the best necessarily, but the weather more than made up for it. We'd also been picking less frequented tracks, much as we had throughout the winter, so it almost felt like we had the whole world to ourselves :).
As far as a farewell to skiing goes, that was right up there :). And a farewell it most certainly was as the temperature slowly but surely ramped up in the week after. In fact, by the beginning of Easter week, we were seeing double digits! It seemed like an early start to cycling wouldn't be the worst idea :).
The thing that has rather overshadowed the whole month in a way is the Covid situation I suppose. I was rather getting into the swing of things again. Being able to travel in to work once a week doesn't sound like much, but seemed to be making a significant difference to work and life in general. But then things turned rather rapidly south and Norway has ended up with more stringent restrictions than at any earlier point in this pandemic.
I imagine this had something to do with my decision to take the whole of Easter week off. It's not like there's a lot of opportunities to use vacation days, so I figured why not just another staycation :). After all the Christmas break was pretty awesome, under the circumstances. So yes, the early part of this week has been spent making yummy Easter food, eating said food, and cycling around Asker :).
I suppose the books must be mentioned :). It took me a fair while to get through Fire and Blood. The only Song of Ice and Fire stuff I'd read recently was the collection of Dunc and Egg novellas, and even that was a while back. In some ways that was quite nice I suppose, getting a bit of a fresh start. It was in general fun to get a bird's eye view of Westeros I suppose, although I have to say, why no map?!
Since then, there's been a couple of even more interesting books. The first was a book club read - The Rift. I have a suspicion that the person who suggested it is unlikely to be enjoying it as much as I did :D. A cross between science fiction, family drama and whimsical philosophical musings, it was like nothing I'd read before!! I thoroughly enjoyed the layers to the story, the different perspectives (special mention of the "factual" notes and descriptions of Fiby), and the lack of any certainty in the conclusion.
Now, generally, I'm thoroughly put off by some the above. In this case though, I found it quite mesmerizing in a way. Maybe some of that is to do with the times we are living in where certainty in general is hard to come by. Which in turn for me has re-emphasised the value of living in the now, clichéd as that sounds. A part of me wants to go find the other books Allan has written. Another part warns me about my experience with Mark Haddon. For the moment I just want to enjoy the experience of having read this book at this time :).
The other book in question was much simpler, light-hearted, and generally just funny :D. I'd noticed Highfire while looking to make up the numbers when ordering some books online, as one does, to get the free shipping. Eoin Colfer is an author I did quite enjoy, but hadn't ready anything by since the Artemis Fowl series. So an adult fantasy novel sounded like an idea worth trying out.
(Aside: Despite the convenience of online book-shopping, I have been really missing the feeling of going to a book shop and just browsing the shelves. Often with absolutely no intent or specific target in mind. Just letting my eyes glide over titles till something catches my attention. I suppose some of this enjoyment goes back to my days of hours spent in transit at airports where more often than not the most interesting things were book shops. But some of it goes back even further, to childhood days spent running around the book fair, trying to take it all in! So many books, so little time :). /Aside)
The book turned out to be hilarious :). Except maybe (spoiler alert) the mogwai decimation bit. That was ick. But the rest of it was a non-stop high octane, roller-coaster of action and teenage wise cracks :D. I suppose not everyone's thing, but I'm itching to suggest this the next time it's my turn to suggest books for the book club :D.
